Mayor Bob Filner resigned on Friday under a barrage of sexual harassment complaints, offering an apology to his accusers while still denying the allegations and blaming his downfall on “a combination of awkwardness and hubris.”

Mr. Filner compared his situation over the last several weeks, under accusations by more than a dozen women, to facing a “lynch mob.”

They always blame everyone else.

“When a lynch-mob mentality exists, rumors become allegations, allegations become facts, and facts become evidence,” Mr. Filner said in a long, emotional speech in the City Council chamber. “We had a chance to do a progressive vision in this city for the first time in 50 years. We need you to carry that vision forward — this is not the time to let it die.”

Under an agreement approved Friday, the city will pay most of Mr. Filner’s legal fees. It will also cover any punitive damages against him in any sexual harassment lawsuit and pay up to $98,000 for his private lawyers.

Mr. Filner, the first Democrat elected mayor here in more than 20 years, will step down on Aug. 30. “I never intended to be a mayor who went out like this,” he said.

“This is the toughest decision in my life,” said Mr. Filner, who devoted much of his comments to criticizing his political enemies and speaking of his vision for leading the city. He ended, to a standing ovation from dozens of supporters, by quoting Senator Edward M. Kennedy: “The cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die.”

One day a scandal like this will envelop a politician in New Zealand.

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You mean like the one involving a male MP, a young male student & a swiss ball?
Or the one involving a Prime Minister’s husband, a male “encounter” while overseas & an Air Force flight to repatriate him?